Name: Strawberry Sherbet
Ingredients: 3 cups strawberry juice; 2 cups sugar; 3 cups water; 2 lemons (juiced)

Why it works: Strawberry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,206 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Strawberry Sherbet

Ingredients

3 cups strawberry juice
2 cups sugar
3 cups water
2 lemons (juiced)

Directions

Boil the water and sugar together for 25 minutes.
Add the lemon juice and strawberry juice.
Strain the mixture and freeze.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Strawberry + lemontop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,206 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Strawberry + sugartop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,060 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps keep the frozen sherbet soft rather than rock-hard.
Strawberry juice: Provides the main flavour and colour of the sherbet.
Lemons: Add acidity that brightens the strawberry flavour.